Herebye I want to memorise last withsun (10,11 and 12 may). Whitsun is traditionally the days that Brouwland in Belgium have their so-called Open-Door Days. For those that are not familiar with Brouwland I will gove a brief explantion.

Brouwland is as far as I know the biggest Winemaking supplies shop in Europe. Not only do they have a well assorted shop where everything is in stock but they also act as a distributor and wholesale for most european shops. Further they have a mail-order department.That is it for free advertisement. Click HERE for a link to their website.

Last year several members of the Belgium/Dutch winemaker forum Bibere.com met at brouwland for the first time. Everybody brought some wine along but as most had to drive home again there was not much tasting possible.

So I launched the idea to search for a camping site so we could meet for a longer time and do some serious tasting.

This plan was realised by one of the forum members (Rik 60). He arranged a perfect camping site.

Saturday Els and I arrived at the camping site. The other participants were already there. They already had climbed one of the local mountains (Mont Tris) Then it was barbeque and tasting time !!!

De owner of the house adjecent to our camping site joined us and brought garden-torches, icecubes and cool water. He generously put our wines in the fridge so we could taste them cooled.

Saturday and sunday evenings we enjoyed eachothers company and wines. For me a great experience as we only know eachother from email-contact and through the forum.

Sundays we visited Brouwland.

At Brouwland we briefly met Bob and Martina from the Winepress.us forum. We were on a tight schedule and our meeting was therefore brief. Nevertheless it was great to meet them. They were passing on later that day to the Mosel-Valley for some german winetastings.

Here are some pictures from Brouwland:

Refridgerator with yeastand enzymes

And in the afternoon we dined at a local restaurant. The great summer temperatures added to the general holliday-feeling.

Els and I already enlisted for next years meeting, as did all participants.

I want to express my gratitude to Eric who arranged the camping site and I want to thank all who participated for a great weekend.

Next year again guys, I can hardly wait.

Luc Volders

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